Waking the Sleeping
by HatakeKaede-san
Summary: It was just last night that the Doctor dropped Donna off at So how come UNIT found him kept prisoner and severly injured a whole month ago? Will the Docor ever be the same man he once was again after this ordeal and can Donna help him on his way to recovery?
1. Prologue

**Summary: **Only when she realized that the place that the soldiers had lead her, well better said dragged her to was in fact a hospital, did it occur to her that the nature of the trouble that the Doctor had gotten himself into this time was somewhat different than she had originally anticipated. And the grave expression on Martha's face as she greeted her was one further clue that the most recent emergency that surrounded their friend was no good one. Basically shameless Ten whump.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who.

**Warnings: **Probably all you can think of and then some apply. Rated M for a reason. Not for this chapter, but for later ones. More specific warnings for each of them.

**Prologue**

"Oi, get your dirty hands off of me, mister and let me in," a sharp female voice resounded throughout the building.

Martha turned to the sleeping man in the bed to make sure that the commotion outside the door of the hospital room didn't wake him up. However he seemed to be still fast asleep. But that knowledge did nothing to soften the suffocating feeling Martha felt inside as even in sleep his face was screwed up in an expression of profuse agony. That face she had grown to know so well and love so much, though in a much different way now than just a few months ago, over the past two years. That face which had always seemed so young, only the timeless expression of its eyes ever giving a hint as to its bearer's true age, but which was barely recognizable now and which seemed so old and worn even with the Time Lord eyes well hidden behind the closed lids.

She opened the door with a sigh and the sight that greeted her on the other side was one rather dishevelled looking ginger haired woman who was in the middle of a fight with one of the UNIT soldiers.

"Hello, Donna. I'd say very nice to see you again, but well considering the circumstances...," Martha greeted her with a sad smile.

* * *

Donna was having a roller coaster of a day so far. And it was only 4.15 a.m. if the clock in the corridor of the hospital were to be believed. It was only yesterday that she had decided to take a little break from travelling with the Doctor and drop by to visit her family. As lovely as travelling around space was, she found herself missing home just a bit sometimes and she was determined to always make some time to spend with her grandfather and mother, even if this gesture might not be as appreciated as she hoped for when it came to her mother. She had felt just a little bit sorry for the Doctor even though she was just leaving for a little while, because unlike her he had no family to go back to. But really, how much trouble could one get into in the span of two days? Well, judging by the UNIT soldiers who decided to barge into her home at two o'clock in the morning giving her mother the fright of a lifetime in the process quite a lot.

Only when she realized that the place that the soldiers had lead her, well better said dragged her to was in fact a hospital, did it occur to her that the nature of the trouble that the Doctor had gotten himself into this time was somewhat different than she had originally anticipated. And the grave expression on Martha's face as she greeted her was one further clue that the most recent emergency that surrounded their friend was no good one.

Martha moved away from the door, so that Donna could enter the room. The sight that greeted her almost broke her heart. She fell down into the chair next to the bed as she took in the extent of the damage that her best mate had suffered.

She brushed away the hair from his forehead and the beeping of several machines that he was hooked to intensified as she did so.

"Oh, Spaceman, what have you gotten yourself into this time? What happened, Martha?"

"It's a long story. One I wish I didn't know," she put great emphasis on the word wish, trying to put exactly how horrible the fate that had befallen their friend was.

Before she could launch into further explanations, she was interrupted by three soft knocks on the door.

"Come in," she invited the young soldier.

"I brought the tapes, madam," the blond haired young man told her, just a little trail of a foreign accent noticeable in his English.

"Thank you, Jonas. I really appreciate what you're doing despite the danger you're putting yourself in with UNIT."

„Don't worry," he told them with a charming smile. „I've got it covered. I'll be back in Norway by this time tomorrow. And once the Norwegian government learns about UNIT's plan sfor the Doctor, they will ensure my safety."

"Well, I hope your faith in your government is well placed. Good luck, Jonas," Martha told him as he gave her and Donna one last salute before he left the room.

Donna felt as if she were several steps behind Martha and the mysterious Jonas and their conversation did nothing but confuse her.

"Martha, what the hell is going on? What happened to him? And what is it with UNIT's plans with the Doctor?" Donna was getting answers. And she was getting them now.

Martha looked around timorously as if she were expecting someone to break into the room any second.

"We don't have much time now, Donna, I can only give you the basics."

Donna was about to interrupt her in order to ask her for the whole story, but the grim expression on Martha's face stopped her from doing so.

„All I can tell you is that he was hurt. He was hurt badly, Donna. Most of the answers to that part lie in this box," she told her as she gave Donna the box that the young soldier Jonas had brought in. It was filled with several video tapes. Donna's stomach made a flip as she thought about the content that was most likely on them.

"And some of the higher ups in UNIT decided that this would be a good time to experiment with the Doctor as we already have his body to our disposal. All in the name of peace and humanity, of course," Martha spat out disgusted.

Donna watched her with a horrified expression on her face: "Can't you do something about that, Martha?"

Martha subconsciously touched her lower abdomen: "Not now that I don't have just myself o think about," she mumbled.

"You mean you're...?" Donna asked.

"Yeah," Martha answered. "But the Doctor is my friend. I can't bear to let UNIT do that to him. Not after what he's probably been through. That's why you need to get out of here as fast as you can."

Donna frowned: "Are you mental, Martha? He's obviously in no state to travel anywhere!" she gesticulated towards the Doctor's unmoving body.

Martha shook her head: "No, he's just sleeping right now. Physically he's been almost healed a week ago already."

„But all the machines...," Donna interrupted her.

„I've been lying to my bosses about his physical condition for a while now, so they wouldn't get any ideas about their experiments. That's why I kept him hooked to the machines."

"Wait! Did you say a week ago?"

"Yeah."

"Martha, this is important. How long has he been here for exactly?"

"About a month."

"A month? A MONTH?! But I just left him yesterday," Donna's voice shook.

„Look, all the answers are in the tapes. Or he'll tell you. Eventually. But now you really need to get out of here."

„But how are we supposed to do that."

„Well," Martha rose one of her eyebrows and looked at something behind Donna.

In the corner of the room a dark blue police box stood unsuspectingly.

„The TARDIS? But can he fly it right now?"

„Probably not, but you can, Donna."

„What do you mean? Hello, Donna, temp from Chiswick who can't fly alien spaceships."

„There's something called Emergency programme 10. He told me about it once. In case that the Doctor is incapitated she will let someone who is willing to do everything to help the Doctor fly her," Martha explained as she took out her old TARDIS key and opened the door to the ship. She proceeded to unplug the Doctor from the various machines.

„I could do with some help here," she told Donna who had stayed frozen in her chair as she struggled to drag the Doctor to the TARDIS from his bed.

„What? Oh, yeah," Donna said distracted as she stood to help her.

Together they managed to get the Time Lord inside his beloved ship. It wasn't as difficult a task as they might have expected. Because while he was as tall as ever he had gotten even lankier, a feat that Donna would have thought to be almost impossible.

As they sat him down his back leaning against the wall of the console room, Martha kissed his forehead and turned to Donna.

„Keep in touch, okay," she told Donna as she hugged her and walked away from the TARDIS closing the door behind her.

* * *

„But what the hell am I supposed to do?" Donna wondered, suppressing her urge to shout in consideration for her sleeping friend.

Just as she was about to finish the sentence a hologram of a man appeared.

„Doctor?" she whispered, her heart jumping in joy at seeing him like this, complete in his striped suit, gravity contradictory hair and a huge grin on his face.

„I am not the Doctor, I am the voice interface," said the hologram in a voice that was too robotic to be her best mate.

"And what exactly is that?"

"I have drawn an image of a person that you hold in high esteem from my databank."

"Oh, Martian, you're such a prat even as a hologram, figures," she addressed her unconscious friend. "How do I start Emergency program 10?" she asked the interface.

"You say Access Emergency program 10."

"Well, in that case: Access Emergency Program 10."

"Accessing Emergency Program 10. Password required."

"What is the password?" she asked with little hope of getting an answer.

"Information unknown."

"Of course. Let's try something different. How do I find out the password?"

„The password is a word that only the Doctor and his companion would know. Something that connected the two of them."

„Well, isn't that wizard? Basically you expect me to know what goes on in that gigantic head of yours, Spaceman. You tell me since you're him, you're the Doctor," she told the hologram angrily.

„I am not the Doctor, I am the voice interface."

„Whatever, you big blurry Picture! Think, Donna, think!" she tried very hard to concentrate on all the days she had spent with the Doctor so far. Maybe...Well, it was worth a try.

"Racnoss! The password is Racnoss!"

"Entering password: Racnoss. Incorrect password. Access to Emergency Program 10 denied," the robotic voice resounded around the control room.

"Okay, so not that one," Donna murmured in despair.

And then it hit her. A single memory resurfacing in her head. The two of them standing next to each other surrounded by the heat sharing a last look before they pushed the button together. Before they signed the death sentence for twenty thousand people together.

"Pompeii," she whispered. "The password is Pompeii."

"Entering password: Pompeii. Correct password. Emergency program 10 enabled," Donna would swear that she could almost hear a non robotic side to the hologram's voice in that very moment.

But she couldn't ponder about that for much longer as she was hurled across the console room as the TARDIS dematerialized accompanied by its typical wvorp wvorp sound that had never sounded more beautiful to Donna's ears before. They were safe inside the time vortex for the time being.

* * *

Be nice and let me know what you think? :)


	2. Chapter I

Warnings: Includes some violence and reerences to both physical and emotional abuse.

**Chapter I**

The TARDIS blue door to the Doctor's room was opened slightly and as Donna pushed into it, it opened fully and revealed the dark room. She took a few tentative steps inside careful not to drop the objects she was carrying in her hands while her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She could barely make out the shadows of the bed and of a... She cursed under her breath as she stumbled over something on the ground. She retreated back to the door until she found the light switch and turned the light on to find that what she had stumbled over was the UNIT hospital pyjama that the Doctor must have undressed sometimes after she had left him alone here. She approached the large sized bed and picked up the covers. Her insides froze as the bed was revealed to be empty. This could not be happening, she had just recently found him again only to lose him without even realizing it and now she had lost him again? Before she was able to start searching the TARDIS frantically she was interrupted by the sound of someone taking in laboured hitched breaths. It was the breathing of someone who had trouble breathing, but tried very hard to still themselves in order not to be detected. She turned around and found the naked form of the Doctor crouched and shivering in a corner of the room hugging his knees to his chest and trying to appear as tiny as possible. It was not much of a challenge as even though he had been extremely skinny before he seemed to be disappearing in front of her eyes now. His overgrown hair was falling into his brown eyes and his skinny limbs were covered in bruises that were ranging from fresh crimson to dark blue. As Donna crouched on the cold floor next to him, he tried to back even further into the wall like a deer caught in the headlights. Donna smiled at him and put down the plate with the food on the ground in front of him.

"Doctor," she addressed him, but there was not even a clue of recognition in his eyes in being addressed as thus. She continued gently: "I don't know what happened to you and I'm not gonna push you, but you need to eat so you get your strength back, "she stretched her hand towards him to pat him on his shoulder, but she refrained from doing so when she saw the fright in his eyes. He raised his head and his eyes found hers and seemed to pierce her as if he was looking right into her, it made her feel extremely uncomfortable. The staring match between the two of them continued until she finally gave up and got up with a sigh.

„Okay, I'm going to leave you to it, but please, you need to eat, Spaceman, "she whispered barely audible and gestured to the food on the ground.

Immediately after she was out of the room and had shut the door ajar, she could hear the sound of the man inside attacking the food on the plate, throwing it into himself and chewing noisily as if it had been years since he had had a proper meal. And maybe it had.

Donna sat down in front of the room with her back against the TARDIS wall and sighed: „Old girl, what are we gonna do with him? "

The TARDIS answered her with a distressed sound, as if she too were completely lost as in to what was going on with her faithful passenger.

* * *

Donna woke with a start realizing that she must have dozed off while she was contemplating sitting in front of the Doctor's room. For a moment she found herself in the state of half consciousness, somewhere on the brink of sleep and wakefulness. She tried to recall what it was that she had been dreaming about, but as images of her best mates battered and bruised body flashed in front of her eyes, she gave up. She got up and brushed the dirt and dust from her clothes and opened the door to the Doctor's room. As she heard his small snores clearly signalling that he was indeed asleep she walked in and approached him. He was lying in the corner of the room, his limbs one over the other at awkward positions, his brow furrowed and sweat dropping down his face mixing with remnants of the food at the bottom of his face. She put a hand against his forehead and found it to be hot, hotter than normal even for a human yet alone for a Time Lord whose temperature was usually running several grades lower than that of humans from Earth. In contrast with all this, the rest of his body was shivering and as she caught his hand, it was stone cold. She took the covers that were lying on the Doctor's bed and carefully in order not to wake him covered his body in it. As an afterthought she also took a blanket and put it on the ground next to him, hoping that once he woke up he would realize what it was for himself and lie on it as she was too afraid to move him herself. Mind you, considering how thin he had gotten it wouldn't be a challenge for her seeing as Donna was a strong woman, but she was scared that she might hurt him, break him considering his injuries or that he would wake up and she would frightened him. She brushed away a strand of his hair that was falling into his eyes and smiled. When sleeping he seemed so peaceful, reminding her of her Doctor, of the friend that he was before all of this happened.

She dimmed the lights before she walked out of the room thinking that he might sleep better without the lights on, but figuring out from little she could go on that she should avoid leaving him in dark rooms at all costs from now on. She approached the console room and started rummaging in the paper box full of tapes that she had left there when they first returned aboard until she finally found the one tape that Martha had marked for her. She carefully put it into the player that she had not even noticed that had been in the console room before and tried to calm and prepare herself for what was coming as she pushed the play button. The screen turned black at first, then it grew slightly lighter, but the picture remained only black and white. Donna gathered that it had come from one of those tiny little cameras that you could hide on a person when you were trying to be discreet.

_The view focused on a fat greasy bald man, who gave the camera bearer a huge fake smile. "So, I hear you've taken an interest in my pet."_

_The man with the video camera replied in a calm voice: "Yes, yes. I've heard from our common friend Mr. Jenkins that you were selling a rather...hmm, let's say exotic piece?"_

_The fat man nodded: „You've heard right. And you know what's the best thing about it?"_

„_No. What?"_

_The man's face turned into a vicious grin. „Well, I'm not even exactly sure what that thing is, but it's certainly not from this planet, so no need to worry about those animal lovers and all that and you can do whatever you want with it."_

„_Whatever you want?"_

„_Yes, yes, whatever. And it doesn't even offer much resistance anymore. It used to, but we soon got it under control and it's been pretty tame these past few years."_

"_So, why are you selling it then?"_

_The man's face grew sour: "Well, my boy has left, you know how it is with kids these days, don't you? And I kind of grew tired and bored of it. It's not like it's much use anymore."_

„_I understand," the man with the camera commented._

_Donna wasn't sure how he could understand or better pretend to understand, not since the early minutes that the conversation started playing out on the screen and since the realization of what or more specifically of whom the two men were talking about had hit her._

"_Enough with the small talk, want to see it?" the fat man asked._

_The other guy must have expressed his approval silently as the image started shaking as the two men walked. The one with the video camera found himself to be lead through a ruined door and down about a dozen stairs. Once they were down the fat man turned on a flashlight and rummaged in a box full of all kinds of crap until he found what he was looking for. He took out an old horsewhip._

"_As I said, it has been mostly tame lately, but it can be quite vicious sometimes."_

_He unlocked a shabby door, walked into the cellar and gestured for the man with the camera to follow him inside. The scene shook as the man with the video camera coughed audibly._

"_I'm sorry about the stench, you know how it is with animals, not the most cleanly creatures, unless you've got yourself a cat like my pops used to have. Now this one, this one is much more like a dog, it is..." he muttered under his breath as he waved the flashlight over the small dark room until he finally found what he was looking for. The TARDIS gave out a distressed sound as the scene revealed the crouching figure in the dark to be the bruised and battered naked form of her Doctor. Overgrown strands of dirty greasy hair were covering half his face and he had grown a beard deeming him almost unrecognizable, but Donna would recognize those haunted kind brown eyes anywhere. The Doctor did not give much sign of acknowledging the presence of the two men in the room asides from a slight quiver of his lips. But the fat man did not seem to need any kind of provocation and he hit the defenceless Doctor with the whip. The alien bit his lip as the harsh leather material connected with his naked skin, hitting him in the exact spot as an old wound that teared again and started bleeding, but he stayed completely still._

„_You gotta keep them in line, you know," he told the other human in the room. „Well, go on, young man, don't be a pussy. You can look closer. It won't bite...well, actually, it might, it used to, but I reckon we got that one out of its system, we did."_

_The screen focused on the Doctor's face as the man with the video camera crouched down next to his naked form. The sound of several feet hitting the steps was heard from afar, but the camera seemed to be totally oblivious to the noise of the soldiers overtaking the fat man behind her as the man holding it seemed to have eyes only for the Doctor. _

„_Doctor, can you hear me?" he spoke softly. „My name's Jonas Jakobsen, I work for UNIT. You're safe now."_

_But the Doctor did not seem to recognize his own name and his eyes stayed empty of recognition. He bit his lower lip and whined under his breath, a sound reminiscent of a pup whining when it was first removed from its mother's breast. The screen turned black for a moment as Jonas Jakobsen took of his jacket and wrapped it around the Doctor and then the puzzled face of a young blond man in his mid twenties appeared on the screen. Donna thought that he seemed completely at a loss what to do and if he could he would run for the hills as far as he could, but he couldn't. Because Donna saw that Jonas Jakobsen was a good man, who could not and would not leave a being in distress. The video continued as young Jonas sat down next to the Doctor and started talking to him reassuringly in a hum of Norwegian._

* * *

He woke up with a start. In the past few months it had always happened like this. He was dreaming at first and in his dreams he was somebody else, someone from another world, someone who had meant something. He tried to cling to that knowledge, but somehow the darkness always managed to break through those dreams and he found himself enveloped by ghosts of the past that scared him even more than the shadows of the present. In the end he always found himself waking up, even though he was well aware that he would only be changing one nightmare for another. He stirred and opened his eyes slowly. The lights were dim, but he could just make out the shapes of the objects in the room that he had found himself in. There was a vague sense of familiarity to it and he tried for a short while to hold on that little thread of memory, but it soon faded. Then the realization hit him. The reason why he no longer was in the old cellar in the small house near the beach, the only home that he had ever known was because his master, his owner had sold him. And this place must have been where his new owner, his new mistress, the ginger haired woman had brought him. He shook off the blanket that was covering him and carefully examined his body, it seemed that all of his more recent wounds had mostly healed and only scars were remaining. The omnipresent pain of yesterday was also gone. The only thing he felt was a heavy sensation in his stomach and looking at the empty bowl he figured that it must have been the food as he had eaten more today than he had in the previous few weeks in which he had mostly survived on some of the few scraps that his master had left him. And even many of those had been just taunts, barely edible and they were so little and so far in between that they only ever managed to wake his hunger. The other thing bothering him was that there seemed to be someone trying to gain access to his mind. It was something sentient and yet it was like no animal that he had met before and it confused him and scared him. The thing seemed to believe that it somehow knew him and therefore had the permission to roam around in his mind. He concentrated hard and threw the thing out of his mind with incredible force. In his short life he had been violated, abused and misused by many, many times and in many ways, but his mind had always been only his and he would fight hard with all the power he had as weak as he was in order to maintain that one piece of control, of sanity. The room and the house or whatever it was around him gave out a dissatisfied humming noise and he heard the sound of a cloister bell ringing somewhere in the building. The sounds pierced his ears and his head started pounding. He had found himself totally and utterly exhausted from the mind battle. He managed to roll over from the cold ground onto the blanket that someone had spread on the floor next to him and to pull the covers over his shaking body. Just as the food, the blanket and the covers had to be a kind gesture from his new mistress. They did not however make him happy as he had in his short experience of life grown vary of kindness. Humans only ever were kind to gain something from you or in order to savour their own cruelty more. But as exhaustion overtook him, he realized that lying under the soft covers felt as if he were lying next to the warm bodies of his brothers once again. An uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach hit him when he remembered the last kind gesture that he was presented with and what it meant for him and for his brothers as the darkness of sleep took him one again.


	3. Chapter II

A/N: Thanks for the reviews.

**Chapter II**

She crouched down on the hard floor next to the waking Doctor and put the clothes she was holding in her hand on the ground. She gestured towards the pile of clothes on the ground and with a gentle smile she murmured: "You should get dressed. It's pretty cold out here and the last thing we need is you getting a cold in your state."

She stood up and turned around, giving him at least a little privacy so he could get dressed without her watching. She waited until she heard the sound of skin and cloth touching and then when she thought he was finished she turned around satisfied. But to her surprise the Doctor was still in a state of almost complete undress his limbs poking into the clothes at all the wrong places and he sat there completely tangled into them his eyes that of a lost puppy or of a toddler who had been left to get dressed by himself for the first time without his mother. She approached him and crouched down on her knees once again.

"You don't know how to do it...," she whispered, her shaky voice betraying her surprise and disappointment at finding this knowledge. „It's okay, I can give you a hand with that," she continued. But as she stretched her hands to touch him, she saw an unspoken fear glistening in his eyes. He backed away still crouching down on both his feet and hands further and further almost as if he were running, running for his own life until his head and back hit the wall of the TARDIS room. He gave out a slight yelp of both surprise and pain and his back slid down the wall until he was half sitting half lying on the ground and breathing heavily. As Donna got closer once more she could hear the sound of his hastened breathing and the double beating of his hearts and although they were already beating away at the speed of light before, they seemed to spurt up even more. She raised both her hand in defeat.

„No touching, I swear," she told him carefully. „Just let me help you, okay? I can show you how to do it. Can I do that?" she emphasised the question mark trying to let him know that it was his decision, that she would not do anything he didn't want her to.

There was a faint hint of surprise in his dark brown eyes at someone actually asking him whether they were allowed to do something with him, but he seemed to cover it immediately. He stared into her eyes sharply, obviously contemplating all the possibilities he had and he gave her a barely visible nod of the head in the end. But the nod of the head broke Donna's heart, because it was a nod of resignation not of acceptance. It seemed to say that he was beyond caring about what she would do with him, but he could at least remain in control of at least a part of himself in allowing her to do whatever it was she wanted to do. Noiselessly he untangled his limbs from the clothes and let them slide onto a pile on the ground in between Donna and himself. He looked from his naked shaking body to the covers from under which he had climbed earlier and for one little moment it seemed that he would make a grab for them in order to cover himself and retain some dignity in front of Donna. But that moment was gone quicker than Donna had even noticed it and now he just continued to stare at her, not moving one single muscle or making any audible noise. Even his laboured breathing and the sound of his two hearts pounding and pumping blood had ceased and in that moment she could not tell for sure whether he was still properly alive or whether he was actually dead. And she figured that at least in some sense the Doctor really was dead right now and what she was looking at was just the shell that used to hold him once upon a time, now only containing a small broken creature who had been brought into this world bathed in blood and violence, hate and anger and it were the only things it had known and it was more scared and lost by her offering it kindness and warm words than it had been by anything else. For those kind of things seemed to be unknown to it and the unknown was what everyone feared the most. She figured that this creature was something that the Doctor had created in order to protect himself, to shield himself from the harm that he knew that was coming or perhaps he had created it when he had finally crumpled under the force of his nightmare that was consuming him. The creature was and wasn't the Doctor at the same time, it had the Doctor somewhere inside behind those haunted hazel eyes, but the Doctor had abandoned it long ago and hidden himself inside some kind of shell, detached himself from what was happening to the creature. And in that moment she knew what she had to do and she swore to herself that she would draw the Doctor out of the creature and unite them once again, that she would put them together piece by piece, step by step until the broken shell of a man in front of her was her strong and powerful Spaceman again.

She took the clothes piece by piece and slowly manifested to him how to put on each of them, slipping them over her own clothes and then when she was sure he understood, she stripped out of them, gathered them in her arms and passed them to him. She nodded at him with a smile: "You can do it."

And she turned around once more, waiting for him to get dressed. When she heard a small cough, she turned back to him and found him completely dressed, still crouched down on the floor, the T-shirt and jeans hanging loosely around his skeletal body.

"Well, come on, then, time to get some food into you, skinny boy," she commanded and gestured for him to get up and join her. "Or do you need help with that as well?" she asked him softening her tone and she stretched out a hand for him to grab.

He regarded the offered hand for a little and then he took it carefully, at first barely touching it, then grabbing a steady hold on it, his skinny fingers digging into the skin of the back of her hand and she had to bit her tongue in order not to yelp in pain. He pulled her hand as he slowly raised himself until he was finally standing on both of his feet, an expression of total awe as he looked at both his feet solid on the ground holding the weight of his body and finding himself at eye level with her, crossing his face for a little while. But it was soon gone and he let go off her hand quickly. He staggered, his feet not used to carrying the weight of his whole body and he took hold of the door handle of the closet next to him just shortly before he would fall.

"Careful, there, honey," Donna murmured as she offered him her hand once more. He took it with an apprehensive look and with having someone to balance of once again he took a few tentative steps forward not unlike a toddler taking the first ever steps in his life. His face lit in an expression of childlike wonder and awe and for a few blinding seconds Donna was convinced that there was a way out of all of this as she carefully led him to the TARDIS kitchen. She helped him sit down in a chair next to the table and she smiled inwardly as a pout crossed his face, he was visibly irked and disappointed at his new found fun of walking slipping away from him. But the droplets of sweat on his forehead and his heavier breathing didn't escape her either and she knew that his body was still fighting a hidden war with all his injuries and just walking that short distance had exhausted him greatly and that he needed his rest.

She warmed up the chicken soup and put a bowl in front of him first and then took one for herself and sighed contently as the soup warmed up her insides when she sipped on it slowly. But she was disturbed by a loud licking and sipping noise and she looked up to see the Doctor with his face half buried in the bowl gobbling the contents of it noisily. She stifled and laughed and admonished him: "Not like that, silly."

He looked up at her curiously, the liquid soup trickling down his chin and dripping on his fresh clothes. She gestured to the spoon next to his bowl and then to hers, which she was still holding in her hand and slowly showed him how to do it. Precariously he took hold of his spoon, dabbed into his bowl with it and unsteadily tried to balance its contents on the way to his lips, but his hand was shaking ever so slightly and most of the contents spilled half the way between the bowl and his mouth and he gave out a dissatisfied gulp as the almost empty spoon clashed with his teeth.

"Let me help you with that," Donna stood up and walked behind him, she felt his body tremor and freeze up as he had felt her standing behind him, but she ignored him and gently took hold of his right hand and adjusted his fingers on the spoon showing him how to hold it correctly. Then still holding his hand she helped him guide a few mouthfuls of the soup to his mouth and only when she was satisfied that his hand wasn't shaking anymore and he seemed confident enough to continue in the task at hand on his own did she return to her own food.

* * *

It has been a while since I actually wrote this chapter, but re-reading it now, not much seems to happen in it...


	4. Chapter III

A/N: Sorry this took so long. I've had the majority of this story written out on my computer, except for half of this chapter and half of the last chapter and I just couldn't bring myself to actually finishing those two until now. This one came out a bit shorter than the others. Anyway, updates should be more often now that the whole thing is complete, every day or two most probably.

**Chapter III**

Donna pulled the covers over the Doctor's body carefully making sure not to touch him accidently. She felt that while she had gained some of his trust in the last few hours and he had even let her help him get into bed, it would be better not to push too far for the time being. He had put on a very brave face while he was leaning against her physically, but she could still feel him shaking slightly whenever they as much as brushed their hands. He probably fought a difficult inner battle beforehand and had only allowed her to lead him to his room because he was absolutely physically exhausted.

She smiled at him: "Get some more sleep, Doctor. You will feel much better afterwards, trust me."

She got up to leave the room, but as she was about to open the door a soft whimper escaped from the Doctor's mouth.

He was gripping the covers tightly with such a force that his knuckles turned white and the expression on his face was one of utter terror.

"Oh, you want me to stay, sweetheart?" she asked softly and returned back, sitting down next to him on the corner of the bed.

There was almost no acknowledgement from the Doctor that he had even heard her question, but she could see him relax somewhat at his words. But he still didn't seem to be willing to close his eyes voluntarily and when his eyelids flittered he fought very hard not to let them close. She looked around the room and noticed a shelf filled with dozens and dozens of books.

"I could read you something. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Doctor?" she smiled at him as she went to examine the content of the shelf. It included a lot of Earth classics that Donna had heard about before, but also some books that clearly were from her planet's future. But most of the book's names and authors were unknown to her and judging from the fact that they came in all forms and sizes most of them were alien. A particularly thick book with beautiful ornaments drew Donna's attention. While some of the writing on the cover was in what appeared to be Gallifreyan and therefore didn't translate, most of the book seemed to be in English. From the little knowledge that Donna had on the TARDIS translation matrix the books must have been translated from Gallifreyan into some alien language. She flipped through the book which appeared to be a collection of Gallifreyan fairytales. Maybe a touch of home was just what the Doctor needed right now. Then she examined the contents of the book more closely and upon seeing some drawings of _Three Little Sontarans, The Emperor Daleks New Clothes_ and _Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday_, decided that it might not be such a good idea after all. She returned the book to the shelf and continued in her search.

Figures, he'd like that one as she noticed all seven Harry Potter novels crammed in chronological order in the shelf that contained some of Earth's best classics.

"Ah, well," she sighed and took out the fifth one called Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She noticed that it seemed to be more worn than the others and she figured that he probably read it more often than the others and therefore it had to be one of his favourites. She had never really gotten into the whole Pottermania business, her only experience so far was seeing one of the movies, probably the fourth one or maybe the third one, she wasn't quite sure. One of her geekier boyfriends had decided to drag her into the cinema to watch it. She didn't remember much from the movie as not only to her but also to several people's around them annoyance he wouldn't shut up pointing out the differences between the movie and the book throughout the whole thing. Both of them had left the cinema unsatisfied and Donna recalled that the incident was one of the reasons she had decided to dump him. Apparently her alien best friend had some more pleasant memories when it came to Harry Potter as he seemed to ease into sleep when she was just a few sentences into the book. She wasn't quite sure if it was the book or maybe just him hearing her voice, all that mattered was that it had worked. She continued to read long after he was fast asleep slowly finding herself drawn into the story, but looking up from the book every once in a while to make sure that the expression on her sleeping friend's face was still relaxed and that the nightmares had not decided to plague him. Yet.

* * *

_In his dreams he was a member of an ancient and mighty race. He was strong and powerful and widely respected. Feared even. And he vaguely remembered that there was a time once when he actually believed that the dream was real. He was this mythical figure, a hero even who had all of time and space at his disposal. But as time went on, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year he slowly realised that it had all just been an illusion that he had created for himself. He was no hero. He was no traveller. He was just an animal whose only purpose in life was to serve as a source of entertainment for his master. The best he could do was to accept it and thwart the illusion of being something more from his brain. He just had to try to please his master to the best of his capabilities and maybe one day he would finally succeed. Or otherwise he'd just die. There was no middle ground between the two choices. But as hard as he tried to push that consciousness of being someone or something else away while awake, it would never leave him in his dreams. And with each time he fell asleep the dreams got worse and worse, they turned into nightmares. At first he used to dream of a beautiful planet, of a family of his own, of plenty of friends. But lately he only ever saw death and destruction. The planet burned until only ashes remained. People kept dying. And it was all his fault. He had come to dread these dreams almost as much as he dreaded the torturous ways of making him wake up that his master would think of whenever he made the mistake of falling asleep at a time when his master required entertainment from him._

* * *

Donna yawned mid sentence. She had made it through two and a half chapters of the book, but now exhaustion of the events of the last few days finally hit her and the letters and words were starting to blur one into another. She closed the book and put it away. She regarded the Doctor carefully and thought about having a short nap, just a few minutes really. She wouldn't even move from her place and if anything were to happen she would surely wake up. But then she noticed that his face which had seemed so relaxed and calmer than she had seen it since they had lead her to him in the UNIT hospital screwed up in an expression of pain and utter terror. And she could hear his breathing audibly harden. She considered whether she should wake him. He needed his rest and she knew that it would take a while before he could sleep without nightmares, but she couldn't bear to see him suffer like this.

Then the Doctor started thrashing around in bed and let out a few low screams and she realised she had no other choice but to wake him.

"Doctor, Doctor," she called for him and tried to shake him awake.

He opened his eyes slowly and set up in bed. He stared at Donna for a while as if he were contemplating something. And then to Donna's surprise he finally spoke.

"Why...," he started, his voice a bit hoarse at first as if he had not used it for a while and he seemed to be genuinely surprised at the sound that escaped his lips, but nonetheless he continued: "Why do you keep calling me that?"

Donna was confused: "Calling you what, sweetheart?"

"Doctor," he answered.

"Well, it's your name, isn't it?" Donna answered, even more confused.

"No, it's not," he shook his head. "My name's Theta. I don't know anyone called Doctor."

That was when Donna finally really realized how far gone the Doctor really was.


	5. Chapter IV

**A/N: **I'm sorry, so sorry about the delays in updating this. I had some trouble with my laptop where I had this story stored on and I couldn't access it for a bit. When I finally sorted it out, I realised that I forgot to write a scene that I intended to in the previous chapter, which while it isn't extremely integral to the plot, something that was supposed to happen there is mentioned in at least two other chapters, so I've been trying to work out how to work it into this chapter with it making at least some sense. Anyway, excuses aside, I'm really sorry and want to thank you all for sticking with me despite this and I promise you that from now on regular updates are coming and the whole story should be up in a few days/two weeks time at most.

**Chapter IV**

Donna stood under the shower letting the droplets of hot water pour down over her body. It had been an exhausting few days for her. She had barely found any time for sleep in between watching the Doctor 24/7 and trying to figure out what it was exactly that had happened to him. She felt drained to the core both physically and emotionally. But she wasn't important right now; helping the Doctor was all that mattered. But maybe, just maybe she could allow herself to close her eyes at least for a few seconds. But as she closed her eyelids she was thrust across the bathroom with a violent thud and she swore as she felt the sharp pain in her head as she collided with the wall. After a brief moment of disorientation she realised that the TARDIS had moved from its place in the time vortex where it had been just floating around for the past few days. She got dressed up quickly and set out for the control room.

There she found the Doctor. No, not the Doctor, Theta she corrected herself, sprawled across the floor still in his pyjamas his eyes concentrating deeply on reading the TARDIS manual.

"Theta, what have you done?" she admonished him.

"I didn't do anything, I swear, mistress," he gulped and Donna had to mentally kick herself for her tone as she noticed his pupils dilating in fear and clutching the teddy bear in his hands. She had found the bear lying around the books at the Doctor's room two or three days ago. She figured that the Doctor had picked it up sometimes during his travels as a souvenir or maybe he bought it because he really liked it, she wasn't quite sure. He was a 900 year old Time Lord after all, but sometimes he could be the most childish child as well. Whatever the reason for her alien friend owning the toy was, it seemed that he had gotten bored of it rather quickly and had put it away on the shelf where it was gathering dust right next to a rather boring looking book about engines. But the previous night or maybe it was the one before that, she wasn't quite sure anymore when Theta had woken up from yet another of his nightmares screaming and she had come to comfort him, her eyes had fallen on the old teddy bear. She had taken it from the shelf and gave it to Theta.

"His name is Teddy," she smiled at Theta who was hanging onto every word she said like onto a lifeline. "He's really special and when you'll have him with you he'll protect you from the bad stuff," she finished lamely. The thing about Theta was that he seemed to resemble a small child with his behavior so extremely that Donna figured she might as well treat him as one. But Donna had never had children of her own and she thoguht that she was no good as a mother. But she was the only one whom Theta had and it had seemed like the right thing to do in that moment.

Donna returned to the present with her thoughts: "I told you not to call me that, Theta. It's just Donna."

"Yes, mistr…erm, Donna," he bowed his head.

Donna approached him slowly careful not to make any quick movements well aware of the reaction that they could result in and sat down on the floor next to him.

"So, what is that you were doing, Theta? Were you just reading?" she asked him softly.

He gave her a nod and let out an inaudible whisper.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that. Could you say it again please, Theta?"

"I might have touched some of the buttons, but I didn't set any coordinates, mistress, I swear," he mumbled burrowing his head into his knees in frustration as the TARDIS emitted the landing noise.

"Well in that case it looks like the old girl decided that you probably could do with some fresh air, eh?" Donna addressed him gently.

"I don't understand. What does that mean?" he raised his head and Donna could see that his face was strained by tears. The anguish that the unexpected event caused him had to be much stronger than she had realized before. Only God knew what kind of reaction he had anticipated from her. But whatever it was she was sure that it wasn't a good one. '

"It means that you did absolutely nothing wrong, Theta, " she told him and decided it would be best to ignore the tears at the moment and have a serious conversation about it at a later point when he'd be in a state in which he could comprehend the point she was trying to make much more clearly.

"And it means that we need to get dressed because we are going for a walk! Isn't that exciting, Theta?"

"A walk?" Theta asked a note of confusion audible in his voice. His new mistress was confusing him extremely. He had somewhat grown accustomed to the fact that she seemed so different from his old master although he still made sure not to allow himself to trust her too much. But he had screwed up, which surely meant that he deserved a punishment not a reward?

"Yes, a walk! So stop sulking and acting as if you never went out for a walk before, Spaceman!" she told him cheerfully.

Theta felt an uncomfortable sting of something deep inside him as she addressed him with that name but he fought to suppress it. He looked down avoiding his mistress' eyes. The truth was that he could not remember ever having gone out for a walk. He had only ever heard about walks from the tales of his brothers. The closest that he ever got to going for one himself was when his master decided to let him out in the back garden of their house. But that had been a very very long time ago, Theta had lost count as to how long ago exactly it was, but he'd rather not recall that day because there was precious little good about it if his vague memories served him correctly.

He jumped up and went to get dressed making sure that he didn't let his mistress wait for too long. He opted for the long jeans and a T-shirt that he found in the closet and quickly ran back to the console room. In what felt like a zillion minutes later Donna finally got ready and found him standing next to the TARDIS' door clutching his faithful friend the teddy bear tightly to his body.

„Well then, let's see where the old girl brought us," Donna smiled at him as she opened the door sincerely hoping that she was right in trusting the TARDIS to bring them to a place that was safe for the Doctor and would help his recovery, not harm him further.

* * *

As they stepped out of the ship the sight that greeted them was one of a park that Donna knew very well.

Theta looked around, his gaze fixing at the sky first, then at the trees, at the grass and finally at the children running around and playing. He breathed in the fresh air and felt the wind playing with his hair. And at that moment a huge grin that was so typical for the Doctor adorned his face. Donna smiled as she took in the expression on his face, the expression of a man who took in all the wonders around him as if he were watching the most wonderful thing in the universe. Donna made sure to store the memory of that expression in her mind for later when the struggle the two of them were fighting at the moment would seem unbearable.

Near to them a bunch of kids was playing football and as Theta and Donna watched them, Theta slowly became engrossed in the game. And then one of the children kicked the ball with too much force and it escaped the children's improvised pitch and fell down on the ground right next to Theta. He carefully picked up the ball with one hand, still clutching the teddy bear in the other and examined it closely.

„Could you give us back the ball, mister?" asked the little blonde girl who had probably been sent to retrieve the ball by her friends because she was the youngest of the bunch.

„What? Oh, yes, I'm sorry, here you go," Theta crouched down to his knees so he'd be at her eye level and passed her the ball. She took it from him, but didn't move from the spot as her large blue eyes fixated on the teddy bear in his other hand.

"Why do you have a teddy bear?" she asked.

"Don't you have one too?" he answered with a question.

She nodded. "He's called Larry. He helps me to sleep so I don't get nightmares," she confided in him. „But you're too old for teddy bears, mister. Adults don't have teddy bears."

„What is your name, sweetie?" Donna asked her.

„Lucy," she told them proudly.

„Your bear, Larry, he helps you when you're hurt, Lucy, right?" Donna asked.

"Yes, he does," Lucy nodded.

"Well, you see, Lucy, sometimes adults get hurt too," Donna told her as she put a reassuring hand on Theta's shoulder.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you got hurt, mister," she smiled at Theta sadly.

"Thank you, Lucy," he nodded and patted her head gently as she ran back to the other kids.

A wave of nausea hit Theta as he got to his feet and he almost fell over under the pressure of the memory that came flooding back to him.

* * *

_He breathed in the scent of the room around him and slightly pulled out his tongue to taste the air. This led him to believe that he had found himself in some kind of a cellar. It was too dark to see properly and his vision was further obscured by the dried blood that had trickled down his face from the wound on his forehead. It took a few moments until he was fully conscious and the pain that was up to this moment only somewhere in the back of his head came at him full on. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed harshly as a wave of nausea overcame him. A cold breeze flew in through the half closed doors and he shivered as he felt it touch his naked body. He was kneeling on the hard floor, his kneecaps pressing down into the mixture of mould and little stones. He tried to move and raise one of his knees but he found both his hands and ankles cuffed to some kind of pale restraining his movements greatly. He tried to loosen the handcuffs and wriggle his hands out, but they were so tight that he only managed to cause himself even greater pain than he already was in. He proceeded to raise one of his knees from the ground slightly and he felt blood trickle down from several of the wounds caused by the little stones pressing into his naked skin. However he was too weak and red and black fleshed in front of his eyes as his knee once again collided with the hard ground. He shuddered and took in a few laboured breaths trying to get his body under control once again._

_ The door to the cellar opened slowly with a crack and he closed his eyes as he was blinded even by the dim light it brought on. Two small figures walked in, the bigger of them holding a flashlight, the smaller one some kind of bowl. Aliens, he thought at first, but as they approached them, he realised they were not alien, but completely human. Two normal, regular human children. The larger one, a dark haired boy of maybe eight stepped forward and aimed his torch at the Doctor once again blinding his eyes and beckoned to the smaller of the pair, who seemed to be hiding behind him. The blonde girl, who might have been four or five years old approached the Doctor taking small steps one at a time balancing the bowl in her hands carefully in order not to spill its contents. She put the bowl, which was filled with water on the ground in front of the Doctor, patted his head awkwardly and whispered: "Drink, doggie."_

_Flabbergasted the Doctor looked from the bowl to the girl, who was smiling at him cheerfully and to the boy who was regarding him from afar with eyes cold as ice. _

"_I'm not a dog," he muttered._

_The girl's face was overtaken by confusion and large tears soon filled her eyes and started dropping down her beautiful face._

"_Daddy, daddy…the doggie, it talked!" she shouted at the top of her lungs and ran up the stairs._

_The boy however didn't move from where he was standing and his eyes found the Doctor's and he stared into them mesmerized by what he had found there. Harsh steps were heard as a fat middle aged man bustled into the room. The fat man crouched down in front of the Doctor completely ignoring the boy._

"_Now then, my dear pet, it is not nice to refuse your owner's generosity."_

„_I'm not a pet, I'm free a being," the Doctor spit out into his captor's face._

„_You certainly are not free. I don't know what kind of being you are, but certainly not a human one. Which means, I'm free to do with you as I want. So, you are a pet. You are my pet, because I want it so. And you will learn to obey and not to scare my little girl. Now drink up, doggie," his face morphed into a particularly ugly sneer as he put emphasis on the last word. He grabbed a tuft of hair at the crown of the Doctor's head and pulled. The Doctor's nose collided with the bottom of the bowl with a loud thud noise and the water turned a slight crimson as a few drops of blood trickled from his nose. The mixture of water and blood slowly found its way into his eyes, nose and mouth and the man held his head under the water for what felt like forever, until he could not only taste the water with a slight touch of iron from his blood, but also until he could feel it filling his lungs. Finally the man took his face out of the bowl, but it was only a taunt and before he could take in a merciful breath of fresh air or cough out the water from his lungs, he found himself under the water once more. His last thought before the darkness overtook him was that his Time Lord physiology was the only thing that was allowing him to survive this so long._

* * *

"Theta, Theta, are you alright?" Donna's voice called to him from some great distance.

He breathed in sharply trying to block the suffocating feeling inside. He stumbled into Donna and clutched at her shirt.

"Take me home, Donna," he murmured into her as she enveloped him in a careful hug.

* * *

Thanks to everyone for reading/reviewing this story/putting it on your fav/alert list. :)


	6. Chapter V

**A/N: **Warning, this one is where it gets a bit more disturbing.

**Chapter V**

Donna half dragged half carried her friend back to the TARDIS. He was trembling under her touch and he was taking huge gulps, but no air would come in. His eyes full of despair connected with Donna's and he opened his mouth as in to speak, but no sound would come out.

"Shhh," she tried to calm him down. "Don't try to speak, sweetheart."

She helped him to sit down in the console room his back leaning against the wall. The TARDIS had taken off back to the safety of the time vortex the minute the two of them came back on board.

"Donna," Theta rasped as he clutched at her leg. "What's happening to me?"

She crouched down next to him.

"You're having a panic attack, Theta," she told him softly and passed him a paper bag that she had conveniently found in the console room. "Try breathing into this carefully. In and out. In and out. In and out. It will help you calm down."

Slowly the air returned to his lungs and he no longer felt like suffocating, but he still couldn't stop shaking and tears flowed down his face. Donna embraced him putting his head under her chin and started rocking him in her grip silently humming a comforting melody to him. After what felt like several hours although it might just have been minutes she could feel him relaxing into her, his chest rising with the double heart beat.

"Donna?" he asked groggily.

"Yes, Theta?"

"You can let go of me now."

She released him from her embrace.

"I think I'm going to bed," he sniffled and left her alone in the console room.

* * *

Donna took out her phone and chose a number. "Hi, Martha," she greeted the woman on the other side of the line.

"Donna! Where are you, Donna?"

"On the TARDIS."

"Oh. And how is he?"

"I don't know, Martha. It's like he doesn't even remember being the Doctor. Calls himself Theta. I don't know what to do, Martha. I think we need UNIT's help."

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment.

"I'm no longer with UNIT, Donna. I'm on the run."

„Where are you?"

„In Oslo. With Jonas."

„With Jonas? What about Tom?"

„Forget Tom. UNIT won't help you, Donna. They'll only make things worse. You have to figure this out yourself," Martha insisted. "Have you looked at the tapes we gave you yet?"

"Just the UNIT one."

"You need to look through the others, Donna. It won't be easy, but it might help you understand."

"Alright, alright, I'll take one more look at those tapes," she answered painfully unaware that her conversation with Martha had a third party listening in.

* * *

Theta examined the content of the box that he found hidden under the main console. It was stacked with tapes from bottom to lid and as it contained one that was marked UNIT he reckoned that these tapes must be the ones that Donna had been talking about on the phone to that mysterious woman. He randomly took one that happened to be marked as number 25 out and put it into the video player. He braced himself and pressed play. He gulped as he realised that the hunted face of the man on the screen was the one that stared at him every morning when he looked into the mirror.

_ Theta was absolutely exhausted both physically and emotionally. He hadn't eaten or drank for at least four days and he had developed a rather nasty cough. But worst of all he had not slept for a single minute for almost the past six days. Well more precisely it was the last six days fifteen hours and thirty five seconds. He'd try to close his eyes for a little here and there, but he had made sure not to fall asleep. Because when he did fall asleep the first time this week as his body had sagged to the ground from his standing position he was instantly woken up by the electricity current that ran through his body. And as he noticed the water that was slowly trickling down from the roof he was sure that it would hurt even more the next time he collided with the floor. He had to fight the urge to fall asleep anyway and finally end this all. After all if his calculations were right the cellar would be flooded to the roof in precisely five days and twelve hours from now on if his master didn't come to stop it anytime soon. But unless his master was planning on turning off the electricity, death by drowning was the least of Theta's concerns. He'd be electrocuted to his death the moment that the water reached the height of his knees._

_Theta was blinded by the light as his master walked into the cellar, a plastic chair under one of his hands and a big sandwich in the other. He sat onto the chair right in front of Theta, munching away at the sandwich provacitavely, saliva mixing with sweat as it trickled down his chin._

_Theta couldn't suppress the growl that his stomach gave out nor the saliva that slowly escaped from the corner of his mouth as his master taunted him by waving the last piece of his sandwich right in front of Theta's face._

"_Aww, are you hungry, dog?" the fat man laughed at him._

_Theta kept his mouth shut determinedly._

"_I asked if you were hungry, dog!" the man snarled as he slapped Theta across the face with such a force that the back of his head collided into the wall._

_Just as when he threw his wife out, his master had elevated his violence and cruelty after social services took his two children Andrew and Linda from him._

_There was no room for trying to retain any kind of honour anymore Theta decided as he gave out a low howl which was meant to let his master know that he was indeed hungry._

"_Ahh, well, I might actually bring you some food tomorrow," the man slurred and Theta screwed up his nose at the smell of old whiskey that emitted from his master's mouth._

_The next day his master brought him not only a bowl full of water, but another one that was full of meat. Theta sniffed at the meat in confusion for a bit as his master had never actually given him any before, but he decided that this must be a reward for him finally abandoning his honour the day before and accepting his role. He probably should have known better, but his master had been particularly kind to him today finally turning off the electricity and the water and even releasing him from shackles for a few minutes. So he started champing the meat carefully and as he felt the tasty and juicy meat inside his mouth he couldn't stop himself and fed until all o the meat was gone and then he licked the bottom of the bowl hungrily._

_His master watched him throughout the whole process a slimy grin never once leaving his face. After Theta was finished he crouched down to him and grasped him by his hair. Theta stopped himself from wincing. Theta's dark brown eyes found the blue ones of his master._

"_Well, considering how much you seemed to like my old labradors Ronnie and Alfie you seem to have enjoyed their meat even more greatly, dog," his master let out a snarl._

_As Theta grasped his words the content of his stomach turned outside and in. He shook his master off himself and coughed before he started retching violently. He could hear his master howling with laughter in the distance._

* * *

Donna found Theta standing in the console room watching the video player as if mesmerized. When Donna saw what was happening on the screen she quickly walked to the video player and turned it off.

Theta turned to her his eyes full of anger.

"And I was starting to think that I could trust you, Donna" he told her as his voice shook: "and you..."

He couldn't believe it. He had let himself be fooled by the illusion of kindness once again. He had almost let himself believe that Donna was really different, that she cared, that she wouldn't hurt him, that she'd keep him safe. But he was wrong once again. The tapes were the proof of that. She was nice to him in order to gain his trust and she'd turn it against him later. And until the moment she had managed to fool him she had all these tapes to keep herself entertained.

„No, Theta, it's not what you think it is," Donna tried to explain, but he wouldn't let her.

„No, I know precisely what it is, Donna. And I'm not letting that happen again. I want to get out of here."

„Theta please..."

„I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" he shouted in a tone that chilled Donna down to the bone.


	7. Chapter VI

**Chapter VI**

Theta ordered another drink. When he first tasted the bitter taste of the liquid that all the humans around him seemed to relish so much he found it so disgusting that he contemplated spitting it out. But he bit his teeth and swallowed. Then he took another sip and another. Ordered one more drink and then another. Slowly he was becoming indifferent to the fact that the content of his glass was one of the most disgusting things he had ever tasted. That warm sensation deep inside his stomach was all that mattered. Well that and the oblivion that seemed to surround him more and more with every sip he took. All the ghosts of his past were gone in those glorious few moments; all that mattered was the here and now.

A scantily clad young woman sat down on the bar stool next to him.

"Well, hello there, darling," she greeted him.

He looked up and gave her a small smile.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he asked her and the next thing he knew she was leading him away into a motel room.

She pushed him down onto the bed and littered his upper body with kisses. As she provocatively reached under his pants he could no longer suppress his arousal. Something purely animalistic awakened inside him and was fighting its way out.

"Please..," he pleaded with her. "I can't…I need you to…"

"You're a restless one, aren't you?" she laughed and proceeded to take off his pants before stepping out of her dress herself.

Once he was inside her he kept on pushing harder, faster in a desperate need of finding a release. He panted heavily as he reached his climax and exploded into her.

"Ahh, well, now that we got that out of our way how about something different?" the girl took a pair of handcuffs out of her bag and before Theta could react she shackled one of his hands to the metal structure of the bed. Suddenly Theta sobered, all the impact of the alcohol in his system gone as he felt all the memories flooding back to him. His breath hitched.

* * *

_Theta awoke with a start. His cellar was as murky as ever and he could feel his naked body tremble under the wave of the cold breeze that was let into the room as someone walked inside. At first Theta tried to brace himself for another one of the torture sessions with his master. But it wasn't him that walked into the room. The figure standing in the shadows at the entrance was much smaller and thinner. The son, thought Theta at first. That thought didn't do much to calm him. The boy might not have been as big or as sly as his father was, but that didn't prevent him from relishing in causing pain to others. There seemed to be a bucket-load of suppressed anger deep in him and he seemed to deem Theta to be a convenient object on which he could release it whenever he felt like it. Sure, in a fair duel Theta could overpower him quite easily, but as more often than not he found himself at the disadvantage of having the movement of all his limbs restricted he had no means of defending himself. And the last time the boy came to him, he had kept on kicking Theta into the stomach for such a long time and with such force that by the time he was done not only was Theta doubling over with pain, he was also coughing out blood. For a moment that had scared him, but then he thought that it didn't matter. What if he died? Nobody would exactly miss him in this world, right? And whatever death would bring for him it could hardly be any worse than the fate he was facing now._

_As he sniffed at the air he realised that the scent of the person who walked inside wasn't male after all, it was a woman. He could tell this thanks to a neat little trick that he had learned from his brothers back at a time when he was still allowed to see them. But even that precious little time that he was given with them was gone now as his master had decided that he had been a bad influence on them and wouldn't be allowed to see them again until his "re-education" was finished. Theta wasn't quite sure what he meant by that because from what he could remember ever since he was still pretty young he always did as he was told by his master and he had not even bitten anyone or tried to speak in that language that he was told was solely reserved for humans for over a year. It was his master's wife who had come to visit him. Out all of the members of his family he had always liked her best even if his brothers had tried to warn him off from her. Whenever his master wasn't at home due to business trips she'd come to trim his hair, shave off his beard and always brought him more warm food and water than he felt he deserved. She was more cautious when her husband was around the house, but she'd always make sure at least to get some small scrap of food to him through her daughter even at times like those. As the light turned and it was confirmed that it was indeed his master's wife who had come to visit him Theta's breath calmed. After all it meant that there was no immediate danger for him._

_She crouched onto the ground next to him and started fiddling with his hair_

"_You really are a pretty one," she mumbled to his ear and took his face into her hands inspecting it carefully. Theta could feel her hot breath on his skin and trembled slightly under her touch. There was an echo of something that he didn't like in her voice. He couldn't quite place it but it was something almost predator like. She brushed her lips against his and then her tongue tried to force its way into his mouth. Theta clenched his teeth in protest, he wasn't quite sure what she was planning to do but he didn't feel he liked where this was heading at all._

"_Oh, come on, love, open up," she challenged him but Theta didn't budge at first but then she slapped him across the face._

„_Do as you're told, you little piece of shit," she hissed at him in a tone that was much colder than he had ever heard before. She flared with so much fiery anger that he surrendered and when she tried again he let her explore his mouth with her tongue. He closed his eyes and reopened them in the vain hope that this was just another one of the strange dreams that haunted him in the rare moments that he slept. But even with his eyes closed he could still feel her kissing him and he could feel it when her hands moved down across his naked body. When he opened his eyes she had stopped kissing him and was licking her way down his throat. As her hands reached down between his legs Theta could feel something inside him stirring and panted heavily._

"_Oh, you like that, don't you, love?" she smiled at him viciously and took his member into her mouth._

_As she sucked at his dick he could feel arousal. _

_Tears prickled in the corner of his eyes._

_What was happening with him?_

_No._

_NO!_

_He didn't want this._

_But it was too late._

_All his senses exploded and his whole body shook violently as he was so near to reaching his climax._

_Just a little more._

_No._

_No._

_Stop!_

_But Theta didn't really want to, did he?_

_This felt so much better than anything else they had made him go through._

_And yet…_

_She chose this precise moment to release his member from her mouth._

_Just right before he reached the high point._

_It felt as if someone had ripped a part away from him._

_But he could think more rationally now._

_And he was ashamed._

_So ashamed._

_Suddenly someone burst into the room. His master Theta realized taking in the scent._

_He didn't dare to look up._

„_You little bitch," his master hissed. „So this is what you do while I'm away making money. You slut!" he grabbed her by the hair and started dragging her to the door. He turned back to Theta kicking him into the stomach violently. „I'll deal with you later, dog," he hissed. His master's wife kept on kicking and screaming while she was dragged outside of the cellar. Theta could hear shouting and the children crying for the better part of the evening. Then he heard the front door of the house close with a thud and he never saw the master's wife again._

_Only when he was all alone once again did what had happened during the last twenty minutes dawn on him. Suddenly he felt very dirty. He could feel trails of her all over his body. He wished he could clean himself. He rubbed at his body as much as his shackles would allow him. But it was no help. That scent was still there. And he feared it'd stay with him forever. And it was making his insides turn. He retched violently. And then he sobbed himself to sleep._

* * *

"Get of off me...get them off!" Theta shouted at the prostitute.

"Well, alright, alright," she slurred as she climbed of off him and released him from the handcuffs. "Jeez, you mental or something, mate?" she shook her head.

But as Theta started shaking uncontrollably and left out a few nerve wracking sobs she became nervous. And she was sure she didn't want to get involved. She collected her stuff and made a run for it.

When Theta managed to calm himself somewhat, he put his clothes back on and reached out for the phone on the night stand. With his hand trembling it took him a couple of tries until he finally managed to get the number right.

"Donna," he whispered into the phone as he felt some kind of force that had been hidden somewhere inside him up until now rising. "I need you," he managed to get out before everything faded to black.

When Donna arrived she found him sitting on the floor his back leaning into the bed hugging his knees rocking forth and back. His hair was a total mess and there were mixed traces of tears and sweat trailing down his face.

"Oh, Theta, what have you done to yourself?" she murmured under her breath when she saw him. But when he looked up and his haunted brown eyes met hers it was the Doctor not Theta that was staring back at her.


End file.
